Anastrozole is used to treat certain types of breast cancer in women who have already stopped menstruating (postmenopausal). It is also used for women who have already had other cancer treatments (e.g., tamoxifen).
Many breast cancer tumors grow in response to estrogen. Anastrozole interferes with the production of estrogen in the body. As a result, the amount of estrogen that the tumor is exposed to is reduced, limiting the growth of the tumor.
Anastrozole is available only with your doctor's prescription.
Once a medicine has been approved for marketing for a certain use, experience may show that it is also useful for other medical problems. Although these uses are not included in product labeling, Anastrozole is used in certain patients with the following medical conditions:
Breast cancer, neoadjuvant treatment for hormone receptor-positive, operable or potentially operable, locally advanced disease in postmenopausal women (treatment for advanced breast cancer that may respond to surgery in women who have already stopped menstruating).
Anastrozole indications
An indication is a term used for the list of condition or symptom or illness for which the medicine is prescribed or used by the patient. For example, acetaminophen or paracetamol is used for fever by the patient, or the doctor prescribes it for a headache or body pains. Now fever, headache and body pains are the indications of paracetamol. A patient should be aware of the indications of medications used for common conditions because they can be taken over the counter in the pharmacy meaning without prescription by the Physician.
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Adjuvant Treatment
Anastrozole tablets are indicated for adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer.
First-Line Treatment
Anastrozole tablets are indicated for the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive or hormone receptor unknown locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Second-Line Treatment
Anastrozole tablets are indicated for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following tamoxifen therapy. Patients with ER-negative disease and patients who did not respond to previous tamoxifen therapy rarely responded to Anastrozole tablets.
How should I use Anastrozole?
Use Anastrozole as directed by your doctor. Check the label on the medicine for exact dosing instructions.
An extra patient information leaflet is available with Anastrozole. Talk to your pharmacist if you have questions about this information.
Take Anastrozole by mouth with or without food.
Continue to take Anastrozole even if you feel well. Do not miss any doses.
If you miss a dose of Anastrozole, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once.
Ask your health care provider any questions you may have about how to use Anastrozole.
Uses of Anastrozole in details
There are specific as well as general uses of a drug or medicine. A medicine can be used to prevent a disease, treat a disease over a period or cure a disease. It can also be used to treat the particular symptom of the disease. The drug use depends on the form the patient takes it. It may be more useful in injection form or sometimes in tablet form. The drug can be used for a single troubling symptom or a life-threatening condition. While some medications can be stopped after few days, some drugs need to be continued for prolonged period to get the benefit from it.
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Use: Labeled Indications
Breast cancer:
First-line treatment of locally-advanced or metastatic breast cancer (hormone receptor-positive or unknown) in postmenopausal women
Adjuvant treatment of early hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women
Treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following tamoxifen therapy
Off Label Uses
Endometrial or uterine cancers (recurrent or metastatic)
Hormonal agents such as progestational agents or tamoxifen may be used in the management of recurrent or metastatic endometrial cancer; in select patients, aromatase inhibitors, including Anastrozole, may be considered. A small phase II trial evaluated Anastrozole in a group of unselected patients with advanced recurrent or persistent endometrial cancer; the results showed minimal activity of Anastrozole.
Anastrozole description
Anastrozole is a drug indicated in the treatment of breast cancer in post-menopausal women. It is used both in adjuvant therapy (i.e. following surgery) and in metastatic breast cancer. It decreases the amount of estrogens that the body makes. Anastrozole belongs in the class of drugs known as aromatase inhibitors. It inhibits the enzyme aromatase, which is responsible for converting androgens (produced by women in the adrenal glands) to estrogens.
Anastrozole dosage
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Anastrozole Dosage
Generic name: Anastrozole 1mg
Dosage form: tablet
The information at Drugs.com is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist.
Recommended Dose
The dose of Anastrozole is one 1 mg tablet taken once a day. For patients with advanced breast cancer, Anastrozole should be continued until tumor progression. Anastrozole can be taken with or without food.
For adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer in postmenopausal women, the optimal duration of therapy is unknown. In the ATAC trial, Anastrozole was administered for five years.
No dosage adjustment is necessary for patients with renal impairment or for elderly patients.
Patients with Hepatic Impairment
No changes in dose are recommended for patients with mild-to-moderate hepatic impairment. Anastrozole has not been studied in patients with severe hepatic impairment.
Anastrozole inhibits CYPs 1A2, 2C8/9 and 3A4 in vitro. Clinical studies with antipyrine and warfarin showed that Anastrozole at a 1 mg dose did not significantly inhibit the metabolism of antipyrine and R- and S-warfarin indicating the co-administration of Anastrozole with other medicinal products is unlikely to result in clinically significant medicinal product interactions mediated by CYP enzymes.
The enzymes mediating metabolism of Anastrozole have not been identified. Cimetidine, a weak, unspecific inhibitor of CYP enzymes, did not affect the plasma concentrations of Anastrozole. The effect of potent CYP inhibitors is unknown.
A review of the clinical trial safety database did not reveal evidence of clinically significant interaction in patients treated with Anastrozole who also received other commonly prescribed medicinal products. There were no clinically significant interactions with bisphosphonates.
Co-administration of tamoxifen or estrogen-containing therapies with Anastrozole should be avoided as this may diminish its pharmacological action.
Unless specified, the following frequency categories were calculated from the number of adverse events reported in a large phase III study conducted in 9,366 postmenopausal women with operable breast cancer treated for 5 years (ATAC Study).
The table below presents the frequency of pre-specified adverse events in the ATAC study, irrespective of causality, reported in patients receiving trial therapy and up to 14 days after cessation of trial therapy.
The ATAC trial data showed that patients receiving Anastrozole had an increase in joint disorders (including arthritis, arthrosis, and arthralgia) compared with patients receiving tamoxifen. Patients receiving Anastrozole had an increase in the incidence of fractures (including fractures of spine, hip and wrist) compared with patients receiving tamoxifen. These differences were statistically significant. Fracture rates of 22 per 1,000 patient-years and 15 per 1000 patient-years were observed for the Anastrozole and tamoxifen groups, respectively, after a median follow up of 68 months. The observed fracture rate for Anastrozole is similar to the range reported in age-matched postmenopausal populations. It has not been determined whether the rates of fracture and osteoporosis seen in ATAC in patients on Anastrozole treatment reflect a protective effect of tamoxifen, a specific effect of Anastrozole, or both.
The incidence of osteoporosis was 10.5% in patients treated with Anastrozole and 7.3% in patients treated with tamoxifen.
Patients receiving Anastrozole had a decrease in hot flushes, vaginal bleeding, vaginal discharge, endometrial cancer, venous thromboembolic events (including deep venous thrombosis) and ischaemic cerebrovascular events compared with patients receiving tamoxifen. These differences were statistically significant.
Results from the ATAC trial bone substudy, at 12 and 24 months demonstrated that patients receiving Anastrozole had a mean decrease in both lumbar spine and total hip bone mineral density (BMD) compared to baseline. Patients receiving tamoxifen had a mean increase in both lumbar spine and total hip BMD compared to baseline.
Slight increases in total cholesterol have also been observed in clinical trials with Anastrozole, although the clinical significance has not been determined.
Do not use Anastrozole if you are pregnant. It could harm the unborn baby.
You may need to take a pregnancy test before using Anastrozole, to make sure you are not pregnant.
You should not use this medication if you are allergic to Anastrozole, if you are breast-feeding a baby, or if you have not yet completed menopause. Anastrozole is not for use in men or children.
Before using Anastrozole, tell your doctor if you have heart disease, circulation problems, a history of stroke or blood clot, severe liver disease, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, or low bone mineral density.
Anastrozole may not work as well if you take it together with tamoxifen or an estrogen medication (such as hormone replacement therapy, estrogen creams, or birth control pills, injections, implants, skin patches, and vaginal rings). Before you start taking Anastrozole, tell your doctor if you also take tamoxifen or estrogen.
You may need to keep taking Anastrozole for up to 5 years. Follow your doctor's instructions.
DailyMed. "ANASTROZOLE: DailyMed provides trustworthy information about marketed drugs in the United States. DailyMed is the official provider of FDA label information (package inserts).". https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailyme... (accessed September 17, 2018).
The results of a survey conducted on ndrugs.com for Anastrozole are given in detail below. The results of the survey conducted are based on the impressions and views of the website users and consumers taking Anastrozole. We implore you to kindly base your medical condition or therapeutic choices on the result or test conducted by a physician or licensed medical practitioners.
User reports
Consumer reported useful
No survey data has been collected yet
Consumer reported price estimates
No survey data has been collected yet
1 consumer reported time for results
To what extent do I have to use Anastrozole before I begin to see changes in my health conditions? As part of the reports released by ndrugs.com website users, it takes 1 week and a few days before you notice an improvement in your health conditions. Please note, it doesn't mean you will start to notice such health improvement in the same time frame as other users. There are many factors to consider, and we implore you to visit your doctor to know how long before you can see improvements in your health while taking Anastrozole. To get the time effectiveness of using Anastrozole drug by other patients, please click here.
Users
%
1 week
1
100.0%
Consumer reported age
No survey data has been collected yet
Consumer reviews
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